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The Energy Portal
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Welcome to Wikipedia's energy portal, your gateway to the subject of energy and its influence on the world around us.
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Energy is most often used in the context of energy resources, their development, consumption, depletion, and conservation. Since economic activities such as manufacturing and transportation can be energy intensive, energy efficiency, energy dependence, energy security and price are key concerns. Increased awareness of the effects of global warming has led to international debate and action for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions.
In the context of natural science, energy can take several different forms: thermal, chemical, electrical, radiant, nuclear, etc. These are often grouped as being either kinetic energy or potential energy. Many of these forms can be readily transformed into another with the help of a device; from chemical energy to electrical energy using a battery, for example. Most of our available energy comes from the sun. The enormous potential for energy is expressed by the famous equation E = mc2.
The concepts of energy and its transformations are useful in explaining natural processes. Meteorological phenomena like wind, rain, lightning and tornadoes all result from energy transformations brought about by solar energy on the planet. Life itself is critically dependent on biological energy transformations; organic chemical bonds are constantly broken and made to make the exchange and transformation of energy possible. Read more...
Natural gas, often referred to as simply 'gas', is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane. Natural gas is found in oil fields, natural gas fields, and in coal beds (as coalbed methane). Before use as a fuel, natural gas undergoes extensive processing to remove almost all materials other than methane.
Natural gas is a major source of electricity generation, and particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in combined cycle mode. Natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, producing about 30% less carbon dioxide than oil and about 45% less than coal, per unit of energy released. It is also expected that natural gas reserves will peak around 2030, some 20 years after peak oil production. Compressed natural gas is also used as a cleaner alternative to other automobile fuels such as gasoline (petrol) and diesel. Natural gas is also used domestically for cooking and for central heating.
The major difficulty in the use of natural gas is transportation and storage because of its low density. Pipeline transport is economical, but is impractical across oceans. Liquefied natural gas can be shipped in LNG carriers, however the required liquefaction facilities add to the cost. The practice of flaring gas released in the course of recovering petroleum, so adding to greenhouse gas emissions, is now illegal in many countries. Read more...
- According to research by the IPCC, government funding for most energy research programmes has been flat or declining for nearly 20 years, and is now about half the 1980 level?
James Clerk Maxwell ( 13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. His most significant achievement was formulating a set of equations – eponymously named Maxwell's equations – that for the first time expressed the basic laws of electricity and magnetism in a unified fashion. Maxwell's contributions to physics are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.
Maxwell studied natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and mental philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, before graduating in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, where he would conduct much of his career. He built on Michael Faraday's work on magnetic induction, using elements of geometry and algebra Maxwell to demonstrate that electric and magnetic fields travel through space, in the form of waves, and at the constant speed of light. Finally, in 1861, Maxwell proposed that light consisted of undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. In the same year he was elected to the Royal Society.
In 1864, Maxwell presented what are now known as Maxwell's equations to the Royal Society. These collectively describe the behaviour of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter. Read more...
- August 6, 2008: An explosion on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has halted the oil supplies through one of the biggest pipelines in the world.
- July 22, 2008: The world's second-largest utility company GDF Suez was formed by the merger of Gaz de France and Suez.
- July 11, 2008: The world largest LNG carrier Q-Max Mozah was named by and after Mozah Nasser al-Misnad, Sheikha of Qatar.
- July 1, 2008: Russian electricity holding company RAO UES completed the corporate reorganization and ceased to exist after its merger with and into UES FGC, the Federal Grid Company of Russia.
- June 20, 2008: The Chinese government announced an increase in petrol prices of more than 16%, reducing the subsidies available under its policy in reaction to globally rising oil prices.
- June 15, 2008: European Wind Day 2008 organised by EWEA, with over 100 wind farms across Europe open to the public.
- May 28, 2008: Indonesia announced decision to quit OPEC.
- May 27, 2008: An unplanned shutdown at Sizewell B nuclear power station causes power outages in London.
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